420WHP944

Your results look great - Keep up the great work and keep posting progress pics

toddk911

Flat black is about all I would try to do on my own.

dougoh

looking great...having the area and the right tools makes a difference...oh and some skills

azmi951

The right tools ad area make it possible. Being a fresh unemployed college grad living at dads house makes this possible. But most of the tools are mine.

toddk911

Nice!! now come to Orlando and paint mine!!!

You have scans of the articles where your car was mentioned?

500

Another proud garage painter here:







Main points:

1) Prep, prep, and did I say prep?!?!

2) Get good tools. I used the same DeVilbiss "Plus" gun that azmi951 is using for the top coats. Really nice stuff. Also, a powered fresh air supplied breathing system is nice peace of mind for the $500 or so it costs.

3) Splurge on good paint. I used Glasurit products throughout (love 'em). It is important to note that great looking results can be had with cheap paint, but the durability and gloss of a quality activated automotive paint is on another level. There has to be some upside to playing around with such dangerous substances (not kidding, educate yourself well about isocyanates etc.)!

As an illustration of my last point, this is my Subaru's hood after I re-did it with products from a rattle can (looks good, but is nowhere near as nice, or tough, as the Porsche's paint):



And by the way azmi951 and 420WHP944, both of your work rocks and white cars done well are beautiful. If I was actually buying a new P-car right now I would pick white... Lovely

azmi951

my hats off to you, black shows any imperfection. GREAT job.

420WHP944

My sentiments exactly - OUTSTANDING work Allan

5speed300

amjf088,

you have the exact finish I want on my black car. Looking at yours makes me realize how crappy my paint actually is. Hell, my whole car is junk compared to yours. Did you buy all new interior pieces and gaskets as well as redoing the pain? Did you take the car down to bare metal? I've been doin alot of research about painting my car myself. I want the same finish as your car but have no paint or bodywork experience.

Any tips on good books about painting? I have been reading through a few, but they dont seem to put much detail into the paint stripping/ metal preparation stages which I am most interested in as black paint will show anything I mess up!

Beautiful car btw, its going to be a huge occasion when you finally roll that bad boy out under its own power for the first time

500

Almost all the seals and gaskets are new. The interior bits are original, but I am re-finishing any that need it, for instance I’m using SEM colorcoat on the leather seats.

I did not take the car down to bare metal. There are some pros and cons to this:

Pros:

1) The original primer has excellent adhesion.
2) By minimizing bare metal areas, you will leave most of the zinc coating intact.
3) It is faster.

Cons:

1) To get a true show-quality paint finish, bare metal is the way to go, as even a carefully block sanded base of the original paint will have very subtle surface irregularities that you can discern (if you look hard enough) when viewing the surface from very oblique angles – despite having a “perfectly” flattened clear coat. As picky as I am, I do not mind it and the finish on the car really does look like in the pictures. People who have seen it in person are amazed and think the paint is perfect, but I know if a really knowledgeable bodyperson saw it, he/she would probably say: “Terrific job – for an amateur!”

One of the unexpected results of the whole learning process of painting my car was that I can now pick apart paint jobs mercilessly and find myself looking at some OEM jobs on brand new cars and thinking how crappy they are, whereas before I thought they were fine!

If you are interested in painting your car, you certainly can do it. I had no prior experience. There are other people on this board (and within this thread obviously) who have also achieved great results. There is a lot of info out there (as you are probably finding out) and it can be very overwhelming at first. You really do have to research for a good chunk of time before buying equipment and materials. At this point, I would summarize some of the general key points I have learned:

1) Buy good equipment. Make sure your air compressor can handle your spray guns (flow, measured in CFM is usually the deciding factor). You will need at least two guns – one for primer and one for top coats. I ended up with four. One for the etch primer (thin), one for the HS primer (ultra-thick), a top coat gun and then a Sharp detail gun. Moisture filtration is important as well. Finally, pay very special attention to your safety gear. These paints are nasty!
2) One of the great sayings I like in painting is “everything you do, or choose not to do, will have a discernible effect on the outcome”. Prep is very important, but also extremely time consuming and tedious. The more you can remove from the car, the better. I stripped the car extensively and am happy that I did.
3) When getting ready to sand the old paint, you want to clean it very thoroughly to remove any traces of silicone and other stuff. If you sand first, you will “grind” it in. A thorough scrub with a scouring pad and Comet is very good for this (of course, you will be committed after this step!)
4) Sand thoroughly. Every part of the surface should be well-scuffed. Follow the paint manufacturer’s data sheets for recommendations on grit. For the products I used, P320 was what I needed. Just to give you an idea on how onerous this is, I spent eight hours on sanding the engine compartment alone:

5) Spend the $$ on good quality paint. Glasurit (BASF), PPG, DuPont, Sikkens are some of the brand names. Find the automotive paint supplier(s) in your area and see what they carry and work from there. Some people believe that any paint, given good prep, can be good. I disagree. I think prep and product quality are both key.
6) Stick with one system. Mixing and matching brands does not always work. I used Glasurit products throughout and had no technical issues whatsoever.
7) As referred to above, make sure you have studied the paint manufacturer’s data sheets for the exact products you are spraying. They will specify everything from recommended tip size to flash times. Typically they are easy to download from the manufacturer’s site.

There is obviously a lot more, but I think those are some of the key points.

I read some books on painting, each told me a little, but none really gave me the whole picture. I hung around on these two forums:

http://autobodystore.com/forum/index.php?noframes;

http://www.leopardsystems.com/paintucationforum/

I picked up quite a bit and was able to ask some pretty specific questions and get good answers. The other issue with books, is that the products are evolving significantly and much of the advice is now out-of-date.

Finally, plan this (if possible) so that there are no time constraints so that you are free to let the job take the time it needs. When you have to rush to get the car done, compromises will be unavoidable. If you experience is anything like mine, it will all take much longer than you expect. However, with patience great results are very achievable.

5speed300

Thanks so much for the lengthy reply. Unfortunately with my car, one of hte previous owners had maaco or another real cheap paint shop put some real crappy black paint over the factory finish. The paint is chipping and peeling in some places. Because of the extent of the crappy paint job, I think my only option is to take all of the paint off. Which means I will need to somehow strip the entire car in 1 day, and immediately paint it with some sort of primer before rust sets in. This of course is almost an entirely new ordeal other than just paint prep as I need to figure out what product I can use with the glasurit paint I want. There is so much info out there its hard to start learning anything specific without getting in way over my head so that I dont understand a word. I think I will probably spend a good couple of months researching this since I cant paint the car for awhile anyway.

Anyway thanks alot for the tips and be sure to keep updating that blog, Im a big fan of it!

Burma Shave

Don't try to strip your car in one day. Do it one or two panels at a time starting with something easy that way you don't get in over your head. Otherwise you will have a big mess on your hands.

5speed300

So should I just strip one panel a day, and then primer that same panel on that day? Will the overall outcome of the paintjob be affected if I'm sprayiing body parts that have primer thats a few days older/newer than some of the other primered pieces?

GOSANE

Like Burma Shave said, strip it one or two panels at a time and prime with IMO a good epoxy primer.

BE SAFE. Please wear a respirator and solvent resistant gloves.

Good luck!

azmi951

Get a good DA sander for stripping. You might not have to remove all the paint, probably just the maaco coat and then a little into the factory coat.

A side note is that painting and prep requires a lot of air. My 2 stage 8.3 CFM compressor runs almost 100% duty cycle right now and I'm looking for a bigger compressor. The head temp is in the 400 degree range as read by an IR thermometer. I was told you can run 2 smaller compressors and that will work well so if this is a once in a few years thing just borrow your friends compressor for a few weeks if he will let you.

My job is going so well it has inspired my dad to paint the suburban tow vehicle soon. It will be hard for me to tone down the quality level...and deal with 8 foot long panels.